


The Hopeful Nightmare

by TrashySwitch



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Evil Nightmarionne, M/M, Multi, The Crying Child Grows Less Scared Over Time, The Crying Child is Named Chris Afton, lee!chris, ler!freddles, ticklefic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:48:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27777895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrashySwitch/pseuds/TrashySwitch
Summary: Chris has been having the same nightmare for years, and it's scared him terribly each and every time. So when the creepy animatronics start turning protective for him, Chris starts to see the animatronics in a new light.
Relationships: Mrs. Afton & The Crying Child (Five Nights at Freddy's), The Crying Child & Nightmare (Five Nights at Freddy's), The Crying Child & Nightmare Fredbear (Five Nights at Freddy's), The Crying Child & The Freddles (Five Nights at Freddy's)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	The Hopeful Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thelightofdarkness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelightofdarkness/gifts).



> Thanks for the prompt! And I hope you enjoy!

Chris was nervously holding a stuffed animal in his hands as he looked around his room. It seemed to be safe enough, but...the moment he looked behind him, a creepy looking Freddy Fazbear was showing up on his bed! Chris yipped in surprise and stared at it in horror. It was super run down! And there were mini Freddy’s surrounding him! But just as fast as it appeared, the big freddy and the mini freddies hid under the bed. All that was left, was his little Freddy plush in front of his pillow. 

Chris let out a sigh of relief as he looked in front of his room. Which spot should he check first? The left side? The closet? Or the right side? Chris decided to go for the right side first. Chris grabbed his flashlight from the dresser and carefully looked through the door. It looked like no one was there, but eyes were always deceiving. Chris listened carefully for sounds. And, there were sounds. It sounded like they were coming from the kitchen. Maybe Chica’s in there, trying to make a pizza for him? Chris listened a little more, and closed the door just to be safe. When he opened it, there was still no one there. So, he speed walked back to the middle of the room. 

Chris moved to the left door and looked through the creak. Turning on his flashlight, he found there was no one there again. But listening closely, Chris heard footsteps getting closer and closer to the door. As quickly as possible, Chris closed it and listened. The animatronic Bonnie seemed to continue coming closer till he was right at the door, and waited a little. Chris gasped quietly as a knocking sound on the other side of the door could be heard. He waited anxiously for Bonnie to leave. All he could hear was a breathing noise. But soon, Bonnie walked away and left Chris alone. Chris let out a breath of relief and ran away from the door to the middle of the room. 

Chris walked up to his closet, and clicked the flashlight on. Foxy was in there, and staring at him. So, Chris closed the door. There was no way the poor kid was gonna stare at THOSE eyes for long...those eyes were much more scary than his older brother’s eyes that peeked under his fox mask. He opened it again, and turned on the flashlight: Chris let out a sigh of relief. It was just his foxy plush. So, Chris ran back to the middle of the room and looked up at the doors. 

Chris quickly took a look behind him and flipped on the flashlight. The mini bears had been building up, but there were only 2 this time. These bears quickly disappeared under the bed once their cover had been blown, revealing only a Freddy plush. Chris turned back around to face the doors again. 

‘Which one do I go into now?’ Chris thought to himself. He looked at the left door, and decided to go look through that. Chris turned on the flashlight and looked through. Listening closely, it sounded like there wasn’t anyone there. But suddenly, Chris gasped at a chime sound! As the chiming sound continued, Chris cooled down. It was just the big clock chimes. That was it. Chris checked the door one more time. 

BONNIE! IT’S BONNIE!

Chris screamed and slammed the door shut. HOLY! THAT WAS CLOSE! Chris took in the air that he had just lost, and waited for the knocking and the robotic breathing to stop. It was a struggle to get his own breathing under control as well. Soon though, the animatronic seemed to have walked away. Chris opened the door again and observed the empty hallway once again before turning off the flashlight and running back to the middle. 

Chris decided to go to the right hall this time. He ran up to the door, and turned on the flashlight. Thankfully, there was no one visibly there this time. But, he did hear running. So, Chris quickly closed the door. Chris tried to keep himself calm while the animatronic knocked on the door from the other side. Chris could also hear fast running and a closet creaking sound. Wait...Did Foxy just sneak himself in from the other side? Soon though, the animatronic walked away and started making kitchen noises again. Chris let out a sigh of relief and moved back to the middle. 

Chris needed to check the closet next. So, he ran up to the closet and turned on the flashlight-

FOXY’S IN THERE! 

Chris shrieked as the fox jumped out of the closet and tackled the child onto the ground. Chris dropped his stuffy as he screamed in horror! “HELP! HELP! MOM! DAD! MICHAEL! AAAAAAAHH!” Chris shouted as much as he could. 

“Hey guys! We have a tiny yeller!” Foxy yelled. 

Suddenly, the other animatronics walked into the room while Freddy Fazbear jumped off the bed. “He’s certainly tiny.” Freddy reacted in a somewhat lower voice. 

Chris paused his screaming and panted heavily. The animatronics were so broken and scary looking! They looked mostly decayed, they all had 2 sets of teeth and none of them even had proper eyes! All they had for eyes were white lights that occasionally turned red! It was TERRIFYING! 

Chris whimpered and wailed like a toddler. “HELP! PLEASE! DON’T HURT MEEEEEE!” He screamed, sounding traumatized. 

Suddenly, the animatronics turned their heads towards the being that was walking up to them. A black, thin being with a white mask and white stripes on the...ends of the arms. What were those? Fingers? And...Why was it so tall? And THIN?!

“Put h-him d-down.” The voice ordered. 

Whoa...The voice sounded super deep...He did NOT like it. Before Chris could think, Foxy put Chris down onto the floor and backed up a little. “He’s mine.” The black figure picked him up with its super thin fingers and brought him close. Chris was visibly shaking, and chattering his teeth. 

“Hmmmmm...So-o fearful…” He said to the child. “Do I scare you?” He asked, leaning closer into his face. 

Chris’s eyes immediately welled up with tears. He started to whimper and squeeze his eyes shut, letting out all the tears that filled his eyes. 

A few of the tears fell onto Nightmarionne. “Pathetic.” He spat. 

Suddenly, a burgundy head with oval ears came up behind Nightmarionne and smacked him against the back of the head. Nightmarionne paused what he was doing, and froze. Did...did someone just hit him? 

Nightmarionne dropped the child and turned to face the animatronic. “You disgu-usting FOX!” The creepy puppet animatronic wrapped his fingers around its throat and lifted him up. Filled with rage, Nightmarionne threw the broken Foxy animatronic into the closet. Deafening metallic crashes filled the room for a few seconds before Foxy finally sat against the wall of the closet. 

But not even a second later, a creepy-looking golden bear walked up to Nightmarionne and with no remorse, grabbed the creepy puppet’s torso and threw him right out of the room. Nightmarionne made loud crashing sounds down the hall as he stumbled and smacked against the four flat surrounding walls. 

This golden bear was known by the animatronics, as ‘Fredbear’. 

When Fredbear turned back around, Nightmare Freddy was holding Chris back lightly with his hand and keeping Fredbear from so much as stepping towards him. Chris knew exactly who Fredbear was. And there was NO WAY he was getting anywhere near him. 

Chris whimpered fearfully and hid his face from Fredbear with Nightmare Freddy’s hand. Freddy, in an attempt to reassure the child, lowered his other hand down and patted his head. Though, the head patting was a little jagged, and a tad too rough. But, Chris generally understood what he was trying to do. 

“Leave him alone.” Nightmare Freddy ordered to his golden counterpart. 

Fredbear nodded and slowly turned himself around to walk out of the room. Once his feet reached the doorway, Nightmare Freddy and the original four animatronics straightened themselves out. 

Chris stared at the door for a few more minutes just in case Nightmarionne came back...But he didn’t. So, Chris turned around to the animatronics. Chris was still terrified of them, and was super nervous to give them any trust. But, Chris tried to, at least, look closer at them. But...they were very big. He had to look up in order to see their eyes. 

Nightmare Freddy looked down at the kid, and tilted his head. Chris tilted his head as well, mirroring his movement. Nightmare Freddy straightened his head and tilted it to the right this time. Chris tilted his head from the right, all the way to the left to mirror its movements again. Next, Nightmare Freddy moved his bear ears up and down. Chris, who was unable to do this, grabbed his own ears and made them bounce up and down with a small smile. Nightmare Freddy opened his mouth a little, attempting to give him a smile. But Chris’s smile dropped as he saw the teeth, and grew scared of him again. 

But things grew a little more interesting when the three Freddles started walking up to him. The Freddles were quite a bit smaller compared to him. So, they didn’t scare Chris as much. He was used to the Freddles making a higher pitched, metallic screeching sound whenever they showed up. But interestingly enough, the Freddles weren’t making the sound as much. They were just staring at him curiously. 

What were they gonna do? 

Chris brought himself down to their level and sat on his own feet. “Hi.” He greeted. “I’m Chris.” 

The Freddles walked closer to him one by one. One of them reached their arms up, like they wanted to be picked up. So, Chris lifted him up and held onto him. While the Freddle was carried, it started kicking the air and making growly noises. These were not angry growls. These were actually happy growls, if you could consider that a thing. Amazingly, this didn’t scare the child. 

In fact, it made him giggle! “I used to kick too!” Chris told the small Freddle. 

The other two Freddles on the ground, grew eager to be held so they could kick the air too! But Chris wasn’t bringing its triplet brother down fast enough for their liking. So, the two other Freddles started climbing up the child’s legs, grabbed onto his PJ shirt and started pulling on it impatiently. Chris looked down and giggled at the two Freddles. “Do you want up too?” Chris asked. 

Both of the Freddles nodded their head and jumped up and up at him with their arms raised up like toddlers. Chris smiled, put the first Freddle down and picked up the jumping one on his left. The Freddle’s white pupils seemed to light up a brighter white as it was lifted up. It even clapped its hands at Chris and kicked its feet excitedly! Chris smiled and kept holding Freddle number two in his hands while the other Freddles stood below Chris. Chris started to smile a little more as he held the bear in his hands. It was being surprisingly cute right now, for a creepy, tiny nightmare version of Freddy Fazbear. 

Soon though, the third Freddle was feeling really left out. He hadn’t been lifted up by Chris yet, and he was growing super impatient. To show Chris he was mad, the impatient Freddle grabbed the side of Chris’s shirt and started using it to climb up. “Hey!” Chris looked down at his side and saw the Freddle climbing his shirt. “Stop that.” Chris ordered with a giggle, shaking his shirt. But the moment Chris’s hand grew any closer to the mini animatronic, the Freddle reached up, threw its arms around his wrist and held on tightly. The Freddle was now being lifted up off the ground, allowing himself to have fun and kicking his legs. But it’s swinging feet happened to start tapping the boy’s belly. “No kicking my belly!” Chris ordered. 

The two Freddles on the ground, looked at Chris curiously. No kicking the boy. But...was climbing the boy allowed? To test this theory, the two Freddles went to one side each, and grabbed each side of the shirt to start climbing. But suddenly, Chris squealed in surprise! “That tihihickles!” Chris giggled as he swayed back and forth to get them off him. Now, the Freddles knew exactly what tickling was. They’ve seen it many times before! So the moment the child mentioned tickling, the Freddles quickly fell into a rare fun time mode! 

The two Freddles on his sides, immediately started tickling the boy while the dangling Freddle let one of his hands free to tickle his neck. Chris squealed yet again, put the Freddle down right away and covered up his own neck with his hands. Chris’s squeals quickly turned into childish giggles as the two Freddles continued to tickle his sides with their tiny, metal fingers. The third Freddle, now free from the boy, waddled itself up to Chris and started tickling his belly. Chris’s giggles started to include squeals as he doubled over a little bit to protect his vulnerable tummy.  
But the Freddle wanted to keep tickling his belly! It was squishy and fun to play with. So, the Freddle grabbed onto the front of his shirt, pulled itself up, and tickled his belly with one hand while it kept hold of the shirt. 

Chris squealed, threw his head back and let out a big fit of laughter! In one quick motion, the Freddles pulled the boy’s shirt towards the ground and waited for impact. When Chris’s back hit the ground, the Freddles let go of his shirt and climbed up to his belly to keep tickling him. “HAhahahahaha! Yohohou sound like dohohoggihihihihies!” Chris told the Freddles. Suddenly, the Freddles paused their movements and looked at Chris, before looking at their leader: Freddy Fazbear. 

Freddy tilted his head before he looked down at the voice box below his tie. The voice box made a static sound, before a barking sound could be heard coming from the voice’s speaker! Chris gasped and sat up. “Doggy!” Chris declared happily. The Freddles, not at all ready for the kid to sit up, came tumbling off of his belly and flopped onto his legs. Chris giggled at this and lifted them up onto their feet. “Sorry.” The Freddles stood there, looked at one another and nodded one at a time to each other. Chris was about to ask what they were planning, when all three of the Freddles came jumping onto Chris and hugged him. Chris giggled and hugged them back happily as he started to fade back…

“Chris? Christopher?” Someone called him. 

Chris opened his eyes and sat up. “Yes?” Chris replied to the familiar voice. 

Chris looked to the left door, and smiled at the lady who was sitting there: It was his mom. “Was that you making noise?” She asked. 

Chris looked around himself and found all his Fazbear stuffies in his arms and on his bed. “Yeah. Sorry.” Chris said to her. 

“It’s alright.” She replied. “It sounded like laughter. Did you have a funny dream?” She asked.

Chris nodded his head. “Yeah! The tiny freddy bears ran up and tickled me!” Chris told her. 

“Tickled you?” She asked with a smirk. 

Chris giggled and nodded. “Yeah, yeah! They were Freddy Fazbears! But very small! They love being lifted!” Chris explained. “And they tickled me when I was holding one.” Chris said with a giggle. 

Chris’s mother hummed curiously. “Sounds like someone had been visited by a couple little tickle monsters.” She teased. “And it sounds like someone’s getting less scared of the pizza place! You’re growing to be a big, brave boy!” 

Chris laughed. “Yeah! I’m a very big boy!” he declared, showing off his muscles. 

Chris’s mom giggled. “Alright. Big boys need sleep. Good night Chris.” She said to him. 

“Good night Mom!” Chris said, quickly flopping under his covers to get to sleep.

As Chris began to fall asleep again, Chris’s Mom found one of Chris’s stuffies in the hallway. Picking it up, she realized it was the puppet stuffy! So, Chris’s Mom brought the puppet into his room, and placed it on the bed with him…

Chris drifted off softly, until he suddenly heard a deep voice. “You th-thought you could r-run away f-from me-e?” it threatened. 

Chris whined and squeezed his eyes closed more. 

“I’m talking to-o you. LISTEN TO ME.” Chris was grabbed by a pair of nimble hands and lifted right out of his bed. Chris opened his eyes right away and screamed at the sight of Nightmarionne and his fingers wrapped around him again. “I-I’ve been waiting f-for you.” Nightmarionne told him, bringing his face closer and closer to his muppet mask. “You thought y-you could get away-y? Even i-if all the a-animatronics throw me o-out again, I STILL COME BACK.” Nightmarionne shouted at him. 

Chris started breathing quickly and deeply as his eyes welled up with tears again. He was right back in the clutches of his evil nightmare. What was he supposed to do? 

The stuffies he was sleeping with, were no longer on his bed and all the animatronics were standing there and trying to find a way to get Chris away from Nightmarionne again. The Freddles were climbing up the skeleton puppet and trying to get Nightmarionne to let go. “GET OFF ME!” The nightmare puppet screamed before throwing the Freddles off his arms and torso. 

Nightmare Bonnie picked up Nightmarionne by his thin torso, much like Freddy did, and pulled Chris out of his grip. “Hands off him.” Nightmare Bonnie warned. 

Nightmarionne growled and shoved his fingers into the animatronic’s arm. With one quick swipe, Nightmarionne ripped a whole bunch of the wires out of Bonnie’s arm, forcing the hand to let go of his torso and leaving Bonnie’s arm completely immobile. But none of the animatronics were having it. Freddy Fazbear and the Freddles kept Chris safe, while Bonnie, Chica and Foxy all tried to get rid of Nightmarionne. But the puppet was very smart. He found a way to immobilize all of them, one at a time. 

Finally, Chris decided to do something he never imagined himself doing: he shouted for help. “FREDBEAR!” Chris shouted. 

Quickly, Fredbear came walking through the right hall door, and walked up to the fight. Grabbing the creepy puppet, Fredbear used his teeth to bite down on the puppet’s mask, cracking it and revealing the pitch black head underneath. Then, Fredbear threw Nightmarionne into the top of the closet and closed the door for good. 

Chris, feeling super thankful, ran up to Fredbear and hugged his leg. Fredbear looked down and tilted its head in surprise. Just earlier, the kid had been scared to go near him. But now...the kid was hugging him? What changed? Did...did the kid like him now because he saved him? 

Chris soon let go of Fredbear and walked back to the Freddles. The Freddles definitely helped him calm down over the creepy animatronic nightmares. And, Chris was slowly getting better with the dreams! The original four nightmare animatronics have slowly proven themselves to be not nearly as killer as they look, and Fredbear was always around to save him if he couldn’t save himself against Nightmarionne and the others. Chris grew proud of himself for finding a sweet side to his nightmares of the pizzeria. Maybe when he fully outgrows the nightmares, he can visit the animatronics and see them on the stage again. 

But for now: Chris will take big boy steps to grow less and less scared of his nightmares. Perhaps a Foxy Pirate Adventure would be a good dream one day...


End file.
